Information Commoner: Keeping Library Staff on Common Ground, 2012 October

Information Commoner
October 2012
Volume 7, Issue 2
Keeping Library Staff on Common Ground
In This Issue
What’s Our Policy
2
At Your Service
3
Department News
3
Strategic Planning Highlights
7
Announcements
Fifth Annual Costume Contest
The Library will be hosting its annual Halloween Costume Contest on Wednesday, October 31, from 1:00 to 3:00 PM. Our special guests this year include Batman, Catwoman, and more! It's sure to be a lot of fun and increase our Facebook outreach. We hope you will all join the fun!
Thanksgiving Break Hours
November 21 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
November 22 CLOSED
November 23 CLOSED
November 24 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Food for Fines
Food for Fines will run November 5 to December 14 this year.
Mike’s Message
PBA time rolls around again, and the Library has prepared its list of prioritized requests:
1. Distance Education/Reference Librarian $66,500
Northwest made this a priority in its
recent accreditation visit.
2. Current Database Inflation $43,000
Inflation is 5-6% and American Chemical
Society journals have increased $10,000.
3. Replacement PCs (LI 205, 206, 207)—One Time $83,400
Computers will be five years old at the end
of the year.
4. Student Hourly (five students) $35,000
Work-study money continues to decline for
needed students.
5. New databases (video streaming) $14,000
Nursing and other academic content use of
video streaming.
6. Ebooks $10,000
Purchasing ebook packages.
Normally, we can expect to get the first two or three. If we get to four, I will be happy. Beyond that, we will be reaching the end of the rainbow. Wish for the best. 2 INFORMATION COMMONER
EDITORIAL INFORMATION
The Information Commoner is an internal communication tool published once a month by and for the Utah Valley University Library staff. Input from all library staff is encouraged.
The deadline for information submittal is the third Friday of each month. Send information to Lesli via email.
Borrowing Books from Other Academic Libraries in Utah
By Jacques d’Emal
Many faculty and students don't know that they can visit other academic libraries across the state and borrow their books.
Every college and university library in the state is a member of the Utah Academic Library Consortium (UALC). As members, we have all agreed to share resources with each other’s students and faculty.
When visiting another UALC library, you will be asked to register an account with that library. You will need to present your UVU ID card and another picture ID, generally your driver’s license. Some of the libraries may also require more information.
As you might expect, the University of Utah and Brigham Young University libraries lend the most to UALC members. On a recent Friday afternoon the U of U library had over 600 items checked out to students and faculty from other UALC institutions. In 2010, the BYU library checked out over 2,800 items to members of UALC institutions, and lent more than the 2,400 items through Interlibrary loan.
Sadly, both of these libraries lose thousands of dollars’ worth of items every year to fraud. To help minimize their losses, they have stricter procedures for registering users.
The University of Utah, in addition to asking for a UVU ID and picture ID, will ask for proof that you are currently affiliated with a UALC institution. Students can do this by printing off a current class schedule.
BYU has one system in place for all non-BYU patrons. They require a UALC ID, a state ID, and proof of address. The in-library BYU police verify the state ID. The patron is then sent to another office to get a BYU ID card. This process takes at least 30 minutes.
Of course, if you do make use of one of the other libraries, you will be required to follow the borrowing rules of that library.
What’s Our Policy?
INFORMATION COMMONER 3
At Your Service
The Dreaded Run Around
By Lesli Baker
We have all encountered it, and we’ve probably all caused it: the campus run-around. No one likes having it happen, and reducing the run-around is essential to providing good customer service on campus.
When we send students off to another department unnecessarily, we create a negative image of our staff and our willingness to help. The entire campus looks disorganized and uncaring.
Students may become angry and frustrated, making it more difficult to work with them now as well as in the future.
It’s often easy to think we can send a student to another department for help or transfer a call to someone we think knows the answer. However, our good intentions are not enough. Often, stopping the campus run around is as easy as someone saying “I’ll take care of it” and finding the right answer.
Don’t be afraid to talk to other departments to determine solutions or go the extra mile to make sure you are sending a person to the right location. The better we are at helping students in these solutions, the more likely they are to return when we really can help them!
News from Systems
Webreporter
By Azucena Aguayo
Webreporter’s outdated hardware and software were due for an upgrade. Instead of a physical server, we opted to implement a virtual server. The new server is running the latest update to the software, which fixed issues with newer versions of popular browsers (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox).
If you have a link to the old Webreporter site, please change to the new one: http://webreporter.ad.uvu.edu/webreporter/asp/Main.aspx.
The old Webreporter (http://webrpt.uvu.edu) server will be shut down by early November. Make sure to start using the new one before the switch is turned off on the old one. For any Webreporter or reports questions, please contact me. By Keith Rowley
Christina, Linda, and Heidi have been extremely busy preparing for the annual acquisition credit card audit and are very happy to finally be finished. We are waiting to find out exactly which day it will be. I’m confident that the audit will pass with flying colors as it has in the past.
Paul and Jennie will be spending the week of November 12 through 16 at a RDA class. RDA (Resource Description and Access) is the new cataloging standard replacing AACR2 in March 2013. Hopefully, Symphony will be fully updated around that time so we will be able to completely implement the new standard.
Our latest eBrary online book update took us from 3,802 eBrary titles to 4,108, bringing our eBook total to 16,878.
4 INFORMATION COMMONER
News from Technical Services
Crisis Averted!
By J O’Day and Chelsie Young
By the beginning of the semester, we knew we were in trouble. The number of work study grants bestowed on students was down and the number of applicants for library aide was significantly lower than in past years.
By the first day of class, we had only 23 library aides (compared to the usual 30+)—not enough to adequately staff service points, to say nothing of shelving and other projects. Judy had exhausted all of our usual avenues for recruitment, and it was time to think outside the box. She brought the problem to Jacques, Lesli, and Mike. Through Herculean effort (in our fertile imagination this involved a lot of shady backroom dealing), Mike managed to procure funding for five new part-time library aides. In the interim, we lost one of our existing part-time library aides, which meant that we needed to hire six people in short order. Judy immediately posted a job notice on the UVU Job Board and applications started pouring in.
By the time the posting closed over 80 people had applied. Judy enlisted the help of Alan Stephens and Jesse Christensen as members of the hiring committee. They pared the list down to a smaller pool of likely applicants and over the course of two days interviewed 12 people. From that pool, Judy and her crack team came to a consensus on six excellent candidates. At the time of this writing, she also managed to add three new work study hires, bringing us to a grand total of 31 library aides—a full complement. We in circulation would like to recognize the amazing efforts of Judy Robertson in managing our hiring crisis with professionalism and aplomb. We would also like to thank Mike Freeman for going to bat for us and securing the new positions. All hail the conquering heroes!
News from Access Services INFORMATION COMMONER 5
By Sarah Rice
Another bindery shipment has been sent out and is estimated to return in mid-November. Certain 2012 issues are included in this shipment, so if you are unable to find a 2012 title on the current shelves, it may be at the bindery.
You can check the status of issues/volumes by doing a title search in Symphony. The items that we are sending to the bindery will be checked out to the user "BINDERY."
If a patron cannot locate an issue there are a number of ways to help them locate what they need:
1. Verify that they understand the LC call number system.
2. Check the compact shelves. Certain titles are located there.
3. Call someone in Serials (Debbie x6336, Wendy x8318, or Sarah x8313). Some issues are temporarily being held in Technical Services as we prepare them for binding, or they may be at the bindery.
4. The title may be available through one of our online resources. Please check Journals by Title (on the Library's homepage).
5. If all else fails, a reference librarian can assist the patron to locate other sources of information.
News from Serials
By Annie Smith
Research Guides
Every semester, we add new resources to our growing list of research guides. The guides include reference books to provide background information, recommended databases, and a list of vetted websites.
The guides cover general topics and specific “hot topics”—controversial issues that have been in the news. We’re always looking for more ideas for guides. So if you run across an interesting topic or question, please let us know!
Ch-ch-changes!
With Christy departing the Library, Trevor has stepped into her role as Media Librarian. We wish him luck in his new department. Kim will be moving to full time to fill Trevor’s position. Over the next few weeks, Mike and Lesli will be reassigning job duties. Once that process is finalized, we will let you know who the new points of contact will be for various librarian duties.
News from Reference/Instruction 6 INFORMATION COMMONER
News from the George Sutherland Archives
By Catherine McIntyre
October is National Archives Month, and in commemoration, Aimee has created a small display in the Archives Reading Room using items from one of our collections, the John Varah Long family materials. The collection contains mostly materials collected by and about his descendants, the Hance and Watson families. Aimee has created a finding aid listing all the materials in the collection at http://contentdm.uvu.edu/u?/UVUfindaid,290.
Last week we met with three of the directors of the Utah Association for the Deaf. They are interested in possibly donating their materials to us, or having us digitize and host their materials online. We gave them a tour of our facilities and talked about what services we could provide to preserve their collections while making them available for use digitally. We had a very pleasant visit.
In September and early October I interviewed four people in connection with the art exhibit at the Woodbury Art Museum, called “Global Spotlight Russia: Pastoralism,” running through December 15. Brent then edited the interviews into a nice ten-minute loop on a DVD that runs continually in the museum while the exhibit is open. By request of curator Melissa Hempel, we interviewed: Trent Olsen, an art student at BYU who also fulfilled an LDS mission to Russia; Dr. Rusty Butler, who is the Associate Vice President of International Affairs at Utah Valley University and the Honorary Consul General for the Russian Federation in the State of Utah; Dodge Billingsley, who trains combat troops to be psychologically ready for war and is an avid collector of Russian art; and Ellie Sontag, who runs an art gallery in Salt Lake City and specializes in Russian pastoral art. Brent and I attended the VIP reception on the opening night, and it is really a great exhibit. If you attend the exhibit, be sure to look for the stand-alone screen and headphones where you can see and hear the interview clips!
Dr. Kathy French was awarded the annual Gandhi Peace Prize on September 30, 2012, in Salt Lake City for her six years of work interviewing Utah peace and justice activists, culminating in the Oral History of Utah Peace Activists. This collection is housed in the George Sutherland Archives and available online at http://www.uvu.edu/library/archives/peace.html.
I attended the ceremony, which was really lovely. In her acceptance speech, Dr. French thanked us at the UVU Sutherland Archives for our six years of collaboration with her on this project, for getting it archived, and Brent in particular for getting it digitized and online.
Dr. French accepts
the Gandhi Prize INFORMATION COMMONER 7
By Kim Rollins
The strategic planning objectives and activities are moving along nicely. The librarians have inventoried strategic activities thus far, and below are a couple of progress highlights.
NEW FACULTY BLOG
Goal 1: The UVU Library will elevate its visibility and value through improved communication, partnerships and support of campus programs.
Objective 1.1a: Investigate new Library Connection format.
Activity: Create a newsletter blog.
Annie has created a blog containing library information aimed at faculty. It is located at http://uvulibraryconnection.blogspot.com.
Unfortunately, the Library cannot batch email the library newsletter to all faculty members, so we are getting creative, offering it in a blog format to which faculty can subscribe. The blog features content such as new database announcements, updates on library services for faculty, bibliographies, and more!
The librarians are also emailing each issue directly to faculty from their assigned departments and key administrators on campus.
STANDARDIZED INSTRUCTION PRESENTATIONS
Goal 2: The UVU Library will connect its community with quality collections and improved access.
Objective 2.4a: Increase quality and amount of library instruction sessions.
Activity: Identify problems with librarians covering the same information during an information session and increase consistency.
Task: Create a standard presentation for English courses.
Feedback from faculty on our library instruction sessions indicates that the English faculty would like more standardization on what is being taught, i.e, different librarians cover or emphasize different things in their presentations.
With Lesli and Ben’s leadership, the Instruction Committee developed new presentations for both ENGL 1010 and ENGL 2020 courses, documenting what specific concepts should be mentioned at each point within the presentations.
The presentations debuted at the beginning of the fall semester.
Strategic Planning Highlights

Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.

Information Commoner
October 2012
Volume 7, Issue 2
Keeping Library Staff on Common Ground
In This Issue
What’s Our Policy
2
At Your Service
3
Department News
3
Strategic Planning Highlights
7
Announcements
Fifth Annual Costume Contest
The Library will be hosting its annual Halloween Costume Contest on Wednesday, October 31, from 1:00 to 3:00 PM. Our special guests this year include Batman, Catwoman, and more! It's sure to be a lot of fun and increase our Facebook outreach. We hope you will all join the fun!
Thanksgiving Break Hours
November 21 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
November 22 CLOSED
November 23 CLOSED
November 24 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Food for Fines
Food for Fines will run November 5 to December 14 this year.
Mike’s Message
PBA time rolls around again, and the Library has prepared its list of prioritized requests:
1. Distance Education/Reference Librarian $66,500
Northwest made this a priority in its
recent accreditation visit.
2. Current Database Inflation $43,000
Inflation is 5-6% and American Chemical
Society journals have increased $10,000.
3. Replacement PCs (LI 205, 206, 207)—One Time $83,400
Computers will be five years old at the end
of the year.
4. Student Hourly (five students) $35,000
Work-study money continues to decline for
needed students.
5. New databases (video streaming) $14,000
Nursing and other academic content use of
video streaming.
6. Ebooks $10,000
Purchasing ebook packages.
Normally, we can expect to get the first two or three. If we get to four, I will be happy. Beyond that, we will be reaching the end of the rainbow. Wish for the best. 2 INFORMATION COMMONER
EDITORIAL INFORMATION
The Information Commoner is an internal communication tool published once a month by and for the Utah Valley University Library staff. Input from all library staff is encouraged.
The deadline for information submittal is the third Friday of each month. Send information to Lesli via email.
Borrowing Books from Other Academic Libraries in Utah
By Jacques d’Emal
Many faculty and students don't know that they can visit other academic libraries across the state and borrow their books.
Every college and university library in the state is a member of the Utah Academic Library Consortium (UALC). As members, we have all agreed to share resources with each other’s students and faculty.
When visiting another UALC library, you will be asked to register an account with that library. You will need to present your UVU ID card and another picture ID, generally your driver’s license. Some of the libraries may also require more information.
As you might expect, the University of Utah and Brigham Young University libraries lend the most to UALC members. On a recent Friday afternoon the U of U library had over 600 items checked out to students and faculty from other UALC institutions. In 2010, the BYU library checked out over 2,800 items to members of UALC institutions, and lent more than the 2,400 items through Interlibrary loan.
Sadly, both of these libraries lose thousands of dollars’ worth of items every year to fraud. To help minimize their losses, they have stricter procedures for registering users.
The University of Utah, in addition to asking for a UVU ID and picture ID, will ask for proof that you are currently affiliated with a UALC institution. Students can do this by printing off a current class schedule.
BYU has one system in place for all non-BYU patrons. They require a UALC ID, a state ID, and proof of address. The in-library BYU police verify the state ID. The patron is then sent to another office to get a BYU ID card. This process takes at least 30 minutes.
Of course, if you do make use of one of the other libraries, you will be required to follow the borrowing rules of that library.
What’s Our Policy?
INFORMATION COMMONER 3
At Your Service
The Dreaded Run Around
By Lesli Baker
We have all encountered it, and we’ve probably all caused it: the campus run-around. No one likes having it happen, and reducing the run-around is essential to providing good customer service on campus.
When we send students off to another department unnecessarily, we create a negative image of our staff and our willingness to help. The entire campus looks disorganized and uncaring.
Students may become angry and frustrated, making it more difficult to work with them now as well as in the future.
It’s often easy to think we can send a student to another department for help or transfer a call to someone we think knows the answer. However, our good intentions are not enough. Often, stopping the campus run around is as easy as someone saying “I’ll take care of it” and finding the right answer.
Don’t be afraid to talk to other departments to determine solutions or go the extra mile to make sure you are sending a person to the right location. The better we are at helping students in these solutions, the more likely they are to return when we really can help them!
News from Systems
Webreporter
By Azucena Aguayo
Webreporter’s outdated hardware and software were due for an upgrade. Instead of a physical server, we opted to implement a virtual server. The new server is running the latest update to the software, which fixed issues with newer versions of popular browsers (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox).
If you have a link to the old Webreporter site, please change to the new one: http://webreporter.ad.uvu.edu/webreporter/asp/Main.aspx.
The old Webreporter (http://webrpt.uvu.edu) server will be shut down by early November. Make sure to start using the new one before the switch is turned off on the old one. For any Webreporter or reports questions, please contact me. By Keith Rowley
Christina, Linda, and Heidi have been extremely busy preparing for the annual acquisition credit card audit and are very happy to finally be finished. We are waiting to find out exactly which day it will be. I’m confident that the audit will pass with flying colors as it has in the past.
Paul and Jennie will be spending the week of November 12 through 16 at a RDA class. RDA (Resource Description and Access) is the new cataloging standard replacing AACR2 in March 2013. Hopefully, Symphony will be fully updated around that time so we will be able to completely implement the new standard.
Our latest eBrary online book update took us from 3,802 eBrary titles to 4,108, bringing our eBook total to 16,878.
4 INFORMATION COMMONER
News from Technical Services
Crisis Averted!
By J O’Day and Chelsie Young
By the beginning of the semester, we knew we were in trouble. The number of work study grants bestowed on students was down and the number of applicants for library aide was significantly lower than in past years.
By the first day of class, we had only 23 library aides (compared to the usual 30+)—not enough to adequately staff service points, to say nothing of shelving and other projects. Judy had exhausted all of our usual avenues for recruitment, and it was time to think outside the box. She brought the problem to Jacques, Lesli, and Mike. Through Herculean effort (in our fertile imagination this involved a lot of shady backroom dealing), Mike managed to procure funding for five new part-time library aides. In the interim, we lost one of our existing part-time library aides, which meant that we needed to hire six people in short order. Judy immediately posted a job notice on the UVU Job Board and applications started pouring in.
By the time the posting closed over 80 people had applied. Judy enlisted the help of Alan Stephens and Jesse Christensen as members of the hiring committee. They pared the list down to a smaller pool of likely applicants and over the course of two days interviewed 12 people. From that pool, Judy and her crack team came to a consensus on six excellent candidates. At the time of this writing, she also managed to add three new work study hires, bringing us to a grand total of 31 library aides—a full complement. We in circulation would like to recognize the amazing efforts of Judy Robertson in managing our hiring crisis with professionalism and aplomb. We would also like to thank Mike Freeman for going to bat for us and securing the new positions. All hail the conquering heroes!
News from Access Services INFORMATION COMMONER 5
By Sarah Rice
Another bindery shipment has been sent out and is estimated to return in mid-November. Certain 2012 issues are included in this shipment, so if you are unable to find a 2012 title on the current shelves, it may be at the bindery.
You can check the status of issues/volumes by doing a title search in Symphony. The items that we are sending to the bindery will be checked out to the user "BINDERY."
If a patron cannot locate an issue there are a number of ways to help them locate what they need:
1. Verify that they understand the LC call number system.
2. Check the compact shelves. Certain titles are located there.
3. Call someone in Serials (Debbie x6336, Wendy x8318, or Sarah x8313). Some issues are temporarily being held in Technical Services as we prepare them for binding, or they may be at the bindery.
4. The title may be available through one of our online resources. Please check Journals by Title (on the Library's homepage).
5. If all else fails, a reference librarian can assist the patron to locate other sources of information.
News from Serials
By Annie Smith
Research Guides
Every semester, we add new resources to our growing list of research guides. The guides include reference books to provide background information, recommended databases, and a list of vetted websites.
The guides cover general topics and specific “hot topics”—controversial issues that have been in the news. We’re always looking for more ideas for guides. So if you run across an interesting topic or question, please let us know!
Ch-ch-changes!
With Christy departing the Library, Trevor has stepped into her role as Media Librarian. We wish him luck in his new department. Kim will be moving to full time to fill Trevor’s position. Over the next few weeks, Mike and Lesli will be reassigning job duties. Once that process is finalized, we will let you know who the new points of contact will be for various librarian duties.
News from Reference/Instruction 6 INFORMATION COMMONER
News from the George Sutherland Archives
By Catherine McIntyre
October is National Archives Month, and in commemoration, Aimee has created a small display in the Archives Reading Room using items from one of our collections, the John Varah Long family materials. The collection contains mostly materials collected by and about his descendants, the Hance and Watson families. Aimee has created a finding aid listing all the materials in the collection at http://contentdm.uvu.edu/u?/UVUfindaid,290.
Last week we met with three of the directors of the Utah Association for the Deaf. They are interested in possibly donating their materials to us, or having us digitize and host their materials online. We gave them a tour of our facilities and talked about what services we could provide to preserve their collections while making them available for use digitally. We had a very pleasant visit.
In September and early October I interviewed four people in connection with the art exhibit at the Woodbury Art Museum, called “Global Spotlight Russia: Pastoralism,” running through December 15. Brent then edited the interviews into a nice ten-minute loop on a DVD that runs continually in the museum while the exhibit is open. By request of curator Melissa Hempel, we interviewed: Trent Olsen, an art student at BYU who also fulfilled an LDS mission to Russia; Dr. Rusty Butler, who is the Associate Vice President of International Affairs at Utah Valley University and the Honorary Consul General for the Russian Federation in the State of Utah; Dodge Billingsley, who trains combat troops to be psychologically ready for war and is an avid collector of Russian art; and Ellie Sontag, who runs an art gallery in Salt Lake City and specializes in Russian pastoral art. Brent and I attended the VIP reception on the opening night, and it is really a great exhibit. If you attend the exhibit, be sure to look for the stand-alone screen and headphones where you can see and hear the interview clips!
Dr. Kathy French was awarded the annual Gandhi Peace Prize on September 30, 2012, in Salt Lake City for her six years of work interviewing Utah peace and justice activists, culminating in the Oral History of Utah Peace Activists. This collection is housed in the George Sutherland Archives and available online at http://www.uvu.edu/library/archives/peace.html.
I attended the ceremony, which was really lovely. In her acceptance speech, Dr. French thanked us at the UVU Sutherland Archives for our six years of collaboration with her on this project, for getting it archived, and Brent in particular for getting it digitized and online.
Dr. French accepts
the Gandhi Prize INFORMATION COMMONER 7
By Kim Rollins
The strategic planning objectives and activities are moving along nicely. The librarians have inventoried strategic activities thus far, and below are a couple of progress highlights.
NEW FACULTY BLOG
Goal 1: The UVU Library will elevate its visibility and value through improved communication, partnerships and support of campus programs.
Objective 1.1a: Investigate new Library Connection format.
Activity: Create a newsletter blog.
Annie has created a blog containing library information aimed at faculty. It is located at http://uvulibraryconnection.blogspot.com.
Unfortunately, the Library cannot batch email the library newsletter to all faculty members, so we are getting creative, offering it in a blog format to which faculty can subscribe. The blog features content such as new database announcements, updates on library services for faculty, bibliographies, and more!
The librarians are also emailing each issue directly to faculty from their assigned departments and key administrators on campus.
STANDARDIZED INSTRUCTION PRESENTATIONS
Goal 2: The UVU Library will connect its community with quality collections and improved access.
Objective 2.4a: Increase quality and amount of library instruction sessions.
Activity: Identify problems with librarians covering the same information during an information session and increase consistency.
Task: Create a standard presentation for English courses.
Feedback from faculty on our library instruction sessions indicates that the English faculty would like more standardization on what is being taught, i.e, different librarians cover or emphasize different things in their presentations.
With Lesli and Ben’s leadership, the Instruction Committee developed new presentations for both ENGL 1010 and ENGL 2020 courses, documenting what specific concepts should be mentioned at each point within the presentations.
The presentations debuted at the beginning of the fall semester.
Strategic Planning Highlights